The ins and outs of stuffed pasta:
A how to-guide for making your own ravioli, tortellini, and more
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BYMALLORY MALLORYFRAYN FRAYN BY
hile the prospect of preparing fresh, stuffed pasta may sound quite the endeavour, the reality is it’s shockingly easy to make and only requires a bit of elbow grease and patience as you learn the ropes. It’s also a fun kitchen project for recruiting the help of friends, family, and kids alike. This how-to guide will break down the three basic elements of any stuffed pasta: the dough, the filling, and the shape, to get you on your way. Just put on that Andrea Bocelli playlist and you’re all set!
The Dough
At its most basic, pasta dough can be made of just flour, water, and salt. Usually, recipes call for the addition of eggs (some combination of whole eggs and yolks) to add richness to the dough, helping to make it more tender, while also contributing to a golden yellow colour. While you can use all-purpose flour in a pinch, try to get your hands on some 00 flour, which is higher in protein and finer in texture, yielding a silkier finished product. The “recipe” for making fresh pasta is so simple that it’s more of a formula or process than it is an exact recipe. For a standard batch, you’ll need about 2 cups of flour (280 g if you’re weighing), 2 whole eggs, 2 egg yolks, and a pinch of salt. Clear your counter or work in a large bowl, add in the flour and salt and make a well in the middle. This is where all the wet ingredients will go. Add in your eggs and egg yolks, and use a fork to whisk the eggs in the centre of the well. Once the eggs are broken up, gradually start to whisk in the flour, incorporating more and more of it into the eggs. Eventually you are going to want to switch from the fork to your hands, and begin kneading the dough together. Water will toughen the dough, so only 26 Culinaire | January/February 2022
add it if the mass you have at this point is too dry to hold together. It can be helpful to use a spray bottle to do this so you’re only adding as little water as possible. Knead for 10 to 15 minutes until the dough becomes smooth and supple. At this point, rest the dough for at least 30 minutes before rolling it out. If you want to get your mise en place down ahead of time, you can make it the day before and rest it in the fridge overnight. Just make sure it’s wrapped well with cling film so that it doesn’t dry out. While this base recipe is tried and true, you can always add in other flavourings to spice it up. The addition of even the smallest amount of squid ink yields a striking, jet-black pasta ( just beware, it will also temporarily dye your hands). Herb purées or even beet juice can be mixed into the dough for green or pink pasta, respectively. When it‘s time to roll out the dough, you might want to invest in a pasta machine if you don’t have one already.
A standard hand crank model will do the trick, but these days there are also attachments you can buy for your stand mixer that may be more your speed. The beauty of making filled pastas is that you only have to roll out your dough into large sheets (rather than then taking those sheets and cutting them into finer strands). Make sure to start with the machine on a wider setting as you begin to feed the dough through, working in small chunks (don’t try to feed in the entire dough ball all at once). After this first pass, you can turn the setting finer with each pass. Depending on the machine, you likely won’t have to take it down to the finest setting, but stopping at the second or third finest should do the trick.
The Filling
The brilliance of filled pasta is that at the end of the day, you can fill it with pretty much whatever you want.
